In 1895 Hard Cider Prompts Arrests

(04/22/2001)

Transcribed by Norma Knotts Shaffer from microfilm
of the Calhoun Chronicle dated 8/27/1895 and 9/3/1895.

8/27/1895
Last Sunday about 3 o'clock Dept. Sheriff Joe Jarvis and two
guards
came into town with George Cadle, a boy by the name of Truman and
another
by the name of Douglas and lodged them in jail to serve a ten days
sentence.
The boys had been picnicing at the mouth of Stinson last Saturday and
had
taken on just a little too much hard cider. There was no special
harm in the cider, but they got to flourishing revolvers, razors and
the
like.

9/3/1895
The prompt action taken by Squire G.E. Cooper of Washington
district,
in the cases for which the young men were brought to jail by Dept.
Sheriff
Jarvis last Sunday a week, as reported in this paper at the time,
certainly
entitles him to a re-election. His action will serve to teach
others
in the future that they must respect the laws of society and the laws
of
our country. His action will tend to elevate the morals of
persons
who frequent gatherings of the kind spoken of at the time. His
action
was purely one of kindness to the men who were disarmed and sent to
jail.
With the bad cider, the boys were drinking and the bad feeling that
seemed
to exist, together with the flourishing of revolvers and razors might
have
terminated in something worse, and instead of a small fine and ten
days
in jail it might have been a life sentence to the penitentiary or an
execution
on the gallows. Every parent should rally to the support of an
officer
who will dare to do his duty.